ATX Acquisitions Partner Dan French on $2B in Closed Deals
Guest: Dan French is a seasoned real estate investor and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience, known for his deep insights into long-term goal-setting and capital allocation. With a successful real estate portfolio built through strategic decisions in deal underwriting and market timing, Dan has navigated multiple real estate cycles. In this episode of the REI Diamonds Show, he joins Dan Breslin to share his journey, the importance of mindset in achieving success, and his forward-thinking approach to entrepreneurial goals.
Big Idea: In this episode, Dan French emphasizes the critical distinction between short-term and long-term goals, arguing that entrepreneurs often overestimate what they can achieve quickly while underestimating their potential over a decade. He advocates for a high-aiming approach to long-term objectives, highlighting the need to balance growth with life priorities, such as family and personal well-being. Drawing from his extensive real estate journey, French illustrates how yesterday’s goals can impede progress and underscores the necessity of a mindset shift for sustained success. He also delves into the nuances of capital allocation, stressing the importance of avoiding overpaying during market peaks and the wisdom in strategically selling non-core assets during overheated markets. Through disciplined underwriting, conservative deal-making, and a keen understanding of replacement cost metrics, French lays out a blueprint for achieving long-term success in real estate investing.
Dan Breslin: Yeah, for sure. I I’m sure some of the listeners probably know your name or the company names and some of your history, and we’re going to get into an intro and pull on the threads there a little bit about that. But I thought we would start with a quote that I saw you post on Twitter recently, and and I quote yesterday’s goals drag us down into the pits of the nether world.
Dan French: Okay. Yeah.
Dan Breslin: How so? How so? And why.
Dan French: Yeah, I I think what I what I meant there was. You know, we have a tendency to get stuck in the past. And when you, when your mind share is is taken up by by what you should have achieved yesterday. You, you don’t focus on the future and what you’re in control of today. So it it’s kind of like a demon, you know. If you, if you look at the Michelangelo painting on the Sistine Chapel that’s called the Last Judgment, and the bottom of the painting is a bunch of demons pulling people down into the the netherworld like hell. And that’s what I was equating yesterday’s goals. So so basically, like, it’s, it’s just a pivoting mindset of having an entrepreneurial you know, fortitude or intestinal fortitude to just say, Hey, you know what? Yesterday’s goals? They don’t matter anymore. Today, like, what are, what are we achieving today? And how are we doing things better today. So that’s what that meant.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
https://www.ATXacquisitions.com/
For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:
https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/
Dan French & I Discuss Closing $2B Deals:
- (00:03:29) The 10-year vision: How entrepreneurs can expand their thinking and aim for massive success.
- (00:10:46) Dan’s early career in real estate:
- From small multifamily deals to growing a larger real estate portfolio.
- (00:19:48) Strategic Capital Allocation: The importance of conservative underwriting and aligning capital allocation with market cycles.
- (00:20:24) The Role of Replacement Cost: Why buying above replacement cost signals a potential market danger and how it influenced their investment strategy.
- (00:24:18) Post-Great Financial Crisis Lessons: The impact of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on current real estate investment strategies.
- (00:42:13) Syndication and General Partner Funds in Real Estate: Dan explains how his company leveraged syndication deals and created a General Partner fund to scale their business, detailing the pros and cons of capital structure.
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- Navigating Market Turbulence: Lessons from Brock Holliman’s Real Estate Success
The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.